El-Wafa hospital threatened with bombing by Israeli military

Yesterday evening
(July 15th) at approximately 23:05 el-Wafa Rehabilitation
hospital in Gaza, near Gaza City, received a call from
someone claiming to be from the “Defense department of the
Israeli forces”. The caller informed the hospital to
evacuate everyone by this morning, and then hung up.

At
23:10, a recorded message was left on the hospital’s
answer phone stating that the downtown area of the Shajaia
neighbourhood should also be evacuated by tomorrow morning.
The Shajaia area is two kilometers from the hospital and has
a population of approximately 100,000 people.

At 23:55, a
third call was placed to the hospital from the Israeli
military. This caller repeated the evacuation message,
stating that it should be carried out by 08:00, “because
we don’t want innocent people to get hurt, we care about
innocent people, and ask you to leave because we are doing a
mass operation in your area.” This message was also
written on leaflets dropped on the Beit Hanoun neighbourhood
two days ago.

“The patients in the hospital are already
in fear. With this new threat, the terror has rocketed
sky-high. There is mass confusion.” stated Rina Andolini,
UK activist now staying the the hospital along with seven
other international volunteers.

The board director of
el-Wafa hospital called the World Health Organisation (WHO)
who then contacted the Israeli military at 00:15. Israeli
forces told the WHO that the hospital do not need to
evacuate and will not be bombed as, “it is a hospital so
we won’t bomb it”.

However El-Wafa hospital has
already been struck by five Israeli missiles on 11th July,
and international activists have been maintaining a constant
presence ever since.

Basman Alashi, executive director of
el-Wafa Rehabilitation Hospital, stated that the callers
spoke in Arabic and did not give any other information,
apart from the evacuation demand.

“We are not going to
evacuate,” Stated Alashi. “We are staying. I believe it
is part of their [the Israeli military] propaganda, part of
the scare tactics they
use.”

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